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Well... i wast just listening to all my rare concerts (connecticut, carnegi hall...) and i noticed something... as far as I know (And Richard said himsef) the wanted to do all their hit songs on stage... why is that they never played "Its going to take some time" i know it wasnt one of the biggest but its a nice song... and what about "all you get from love" or "Calling occupants" or "solitaire"...those were singles!... i would love to have those sung live... why is it that?

just questioning... what do you think?

It would have been so great to hear those other songs live, Daniel. I think of that as well. Perhaps those were not included because they came later in their career and some were not as big of a hit as the others. I'd give anything to hear "All You Get From Love" or "Solitaire" performed live!

Well, the thig is that "its going to take" is not that later... and was good chart... "Mr Guder" wasnt even a single and they keep singing it for years... (is not that i dont like the song, but I prefer "Its going to take Some time"...) and the thing is, by 1975, they were touring and they included "Only yesterday" (I mean, to sing it live as a whole track, and not as part of a medley...) but they never chose "Solitaire"... Wasn't it a great way to promote it??? (I mean, sing it live). By 1977 they we're touring aswell, and they sung live "Dont cry for me Argentina" but they never chose "all you get" or "Calling Occupants" nor "Sweet sweet smile"... How can that be?

Daniel, this is a really interesting thread!

The Carpenters performed Mr. Guder (and prior to that, The Bacharach Medley) to showcase Karen's incredible talent as a singing drummer. As time went on, they had more and more hits, but still had the same amount of time to perform them. By the mid-1970's, there were certain standards that couldn't be omitted from the show just because of audience expectations. When they changed their show up a bit in 1976, it became more theatrical (think about Karen's drumming sequence as an act, not as a song... or the Grease medley as a mini-show rather than a medley). I think the public's appetite for newer material wasn't very big, so they kept up with the audience expectaions instead.

Just my opinion, anyhow...

I do recall that Karen refused to do Solitaire on stage because she didn't really care for the song.

But this thread also makes me wonder what a stage show would have been like after "Made In America" was released. I know that they were planning a stage tour, not just a promotional one.

That is sad, how many plans that they had when Karen died, that they never got to do, if Karen lived to be 105 years old, It would have still been too soon in my book. Do you think that Voice Of The Heart would have been called something different, had she lived

Richard says that for some reason or other, Karen never liked Solitaire.

I have grown to like Solitaire more and more over the years, especially when the song was finally recorded on CD. The song is so quiet that when it's played on a vinyl album, unless the vinyl is pristine, the needle tends to pick up pops and hissing from the needle, the turntable, and even the most minute scratches on the vinyl.

The lyrics of the song are depressing and convey a sense of loss and hopelessness. Karen's performance of the song is perfect. I have heard the song sung by many other artists, including Neil Sedaka (who co-wrote the song), and none has approached the heartfelt emotion conveyed by Karen.

As for why Karen didn't like it, perhaps because the music is so quiet, her vocals are more exposed and raw, and I think she probably felt a bit naked singing it. There are a lot of "low notes" in the song and Karen's vocals have a more "rawer" sound than she felt comfortable with. Case in point, Karen re-recorded her vocals on a couple of the Ticket To Ride tunes. Richard also says that they had also planned to re-record Someday and Eve, because Karen didn't like her vocal performance on the tunes. I, for one, like the "raw sound" that permeates the early recordings, like those on the Ticket To Ride and Close To You albums.

Also, the lyrics may have been hitting a little close to home for Karen - "and by himself, it's easy to pretend he'll never love again..." "while life goes on around him everywhere, he's playing solitaire..." Horizon came out a year before A Kind Of Hush which included I Need to Be in Love, which was Karen's favorite Carpenters song. I Need To Be In Love has lyrics in the same vein as Solitaire, but there's an undercurrent of hope in the song, because the singer is admitting that maybe the reason she's alone is because she's been setting her sights too high ("I know I ask perfection of a quite imperfect world, and fool enough to think that's what I'll find...")

Solitaire, on the other hand, has no hope, only a resignation ("and every road that takes him, takes him down...") The song is essentially saying the guy is alone and it's no one else's fault but his own, and since he's unwilling to change, there's no hope for him... To have performed that song in concerts every night might have been a thrill to Richard and the audience, but I think it would have been exceedingly draining for Karen...
Edited by NedNickerson, 10 June 2007 - 03:37 PM.

I agree!! Karen said that some songs would wipe her out on stage. I Need To Be In Love was one of them.

If I recall, Karen had to be talked into recording Solitaire in the first place. She never liked it, and never grew to like it. I didn't like the song itself, initially, but my god, Karen's vocals are gorgeous. If it was anyone else singing the song, I think I wouldn't have liked it either.

Interesting insight, Ned.

So true! No other version has touched Karen's. Not even close. The most recent popular version was Clay Aiken's. His was very average when compared to the Carpenters.

Here is what Karen said about 'Solitaire' :

"I think I heard it the first time in England. I think the versions that I had heard didn't knock me out. I do like it. It's not my favorite. But it's a beautiful song and Richard produced the hell out of it. And I like doing it, but there's others that I am more fond of."

I'd agree with that, too. Just listening to Karen hit all those low notes is exhausting! I love Karen's version of Solitaire, when I first heard it I listened to it incessantly. Especially the ("and every road that takes him, takes him down...") part.

Karen used curse words far more than I ever Imagined, I always thought of her as so innocent, but her language lol I just never before thought that it would be common for Karen to use the word HELL so much lol

Maybe she thought that it would help people not think of them as so clean cut or something

Come on Aaron, "hell" is barely a curse word anyway.

In my book, No it isn't, but I live in a family where everything is a curse word lol

But realistically We all say worse than Hell all the time, I just mean that she said it in interviews freely

I think she used the "F" word in the Rolling Stone interview. But its hard to imagine the beautiful voice uttering those sorts of things.

That's what I was thinking, it just amazed me that someone with such an angelic voice would say such un-angelic words

Ya, just like me!!




Seriously, I'm sure Karen and Richard swore as much as anyone else. Just not around their parents.